Improvement in street-cars



JOHN STEPHENSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN STREET-CARS.

Specification forming-part of Letters Patent No. 162,964, dated May 4,1875; application led April 27, 1875.

OASE G33.

To atl'wphom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J oHNS'rEPHENsoN, of New York, in the county of NewYork and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Street-Cars; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enableothers skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters ofreference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Figure l represents a side elevation of a street-car having myimprovement applied thereto, the runnin g-gear being removed. Fig. 2represents an end elevation of the same, and Fig. 3 a detail section ofthe lower end of the door and its adjuncts. Fig. 4 represents amodification of the ldevice for operating the rack-bar that operates thedoor.

My invention relatesto an improved mode of operating the entrance-doorof street-cars; and consists in a new and improved combination ofoperating devices with the entrancedoor of a car provided with arack-bar, whereby the driver can more readily and surely open and closethe door in the rear, while at his post in front.

In this application the broad idea of operating the entrance-door of acar by means of a rack and an operating gear, and suitable mechanism tooperate the latter is not claimed, as such forms the subjectmatter ot'original application, marked Oase G3, and from which the snbjectematterof this application is hereby withdrawn, and called Oase G32.

To enable others skilled in the art to make, construct, and use myimprovement, I will now describe its parts in detail, omitting adescription of such parts of a car as are unnecessary to a fullunderstanding of my present improvement.

The forward end of the car-body, so far as this invention is concerned,.may be made in any suitable way; but the rear end and its entrance-doorshould be so constructed that the latter can be made to slide back andforth in opening or closing the entrance to the car.

A represents a car-body adapted to my purpose, it being provided with asliding door, B, to the lower end of which is secured a rackbar, a., bymeans of a bracket or brackets, b, (see Fig. 3,) to which it is firmlybolted. The lower end of the door is made to rest and slide on a rail orway, c, arranged on and secured to the rear end and upper side of thecar-door.

If desired, the door may be provided with grooved rollers for Aitssupport on the rail c, and to facilitate its operation.

The rack c may or may not be made to slide in a guide-groove; but it ispreferred to do so. rI his plan is shown in Fig. 3, the rack-bar forthis purpose being shown as of a T-shape in its cross-section, and soarranged as to slide in a correspondingly-grooved block, d, secured tothe under side of the car-body at its rear end. By so making it, thedoor is made to move more evenly and steadily than it might otherwisedo. For many reasons I prefer to locate the rack-bar below the end sillof the car, yet it might be arranged above the door, and at variousother points, without in any Way altering the principle of itsapplication to the door, or of its Inode of operation.

To the under side of the floor or bottom of the car is suspended ashaft, O, by means ot' hangers e, having suitable bearings for themounting of the shaft. At the rear end of this shaft is secured apinion-wheel, f, the teeth of which are made to mesh with those of therack-bar a, while at its front end is secured a beveled pinion, g, whichmeshes withf the teeth of a corresponding bevel-wheel, h, which, inturn, is mounted on the lower end of a crank-shaft, c', located at thefront end of the drivers platform D, and through the crankhandle 7c ofwhich the driver is enabled to impart motion to the door B in the rear,by means of the said shaft i, bevel-gears h and g, shaft O, pinion f,and rack-bar a. rIhis ar rangement of the shaft (l, pinion f, and gearsg and h, below the body of the car is to adapt it to the operation ofthe rack a, as arranged below the rear sill of the car.

In the event of a different arrangement of the rack, a correspondingarrangement of the shaft G and c may be required to be made in order tooperate it, but which would in no way involve a change of principle inthe operating devices, but simply such change as could be effected byany competent mechanic skilled in car-building.

Instead of using a full pinion, f, a segmental pinion of suitable sizeand number of teeth may be used for the purpose. Such a pinion is shownin Fig. 4. In such case shaft U would act simply as a rock-shaft, thepinion and rack-bar being relatively so constructed vthat a partialrevolution of the shaft would suffice fully to open or close theentrance to the car. As a rule, however, pinion fis preferred.

Having described my invention, what Iclaim JOHN STEPHENSON.

Witnesses:

AUGUST RIPPERGER, STUART A. STEPHENsoN.

